Essay On Schizophrenia In Black Swan

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Schizophrenia in Aronofsky’s Black Swan
It is severe, disabling, chronic and constantly recurring. Patients hear unexisting voices, feel irrational fear of others, and have difficulty thinking clearly. 24 million people around the world suffer from schizophrenia, a delusion-marked psychological disorder (Myers). This illness is dauntingly depicted in a beautiful protagonist of the 2010 thriller movie Black Swan, directed by Darren Aronofsky.
MOVIE SUMMARY
The protagonist, Nina Sayers, is a delicate and a skilled ballerina. After the previous Swan Queen retires, Nina is chosen as a potential for the Swan Queen. This year, the Swan Queen performs both the innocent, pure white and the provocative, sensual black swan. Nina is perfect in playing the white swan, but she lacks as the black swan. The director, Thomas Leroy, is not impressed with Nina’s performance as the black swan. Nina practices that night and asks for a second chance, which Thomas rejects at first. But after kissing Nina, and getting bitten by her, he finds that Nina also has the potential for the black swan, and changes his mind. Nina is excited by her role but also anxious because of the new member of the company, Lily. Lily does not have the precise techniques Nina have, but she is indeed, charismatic. Moreover, the former Swan Queen, Beth Macintyre, is unhappy that she has been pulled out of her place due to her age and asks Nina if she had spent a night with Thomas. Nina feels offended. When she gets home, she has to deal with her obsessive, authoritarian, former ballerina mother, Erica.
Nina feels anxious and stressed that she cannot get the black swan right. She feels that Thomas would replace her with Lily as the Swan Queen. Joking around and being on Nina’s si...

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... Health).
CONCLUSION
Often, people feel that someone is following behind them in the dark, scheming of something evil, maybe see something pass by through the woods, hear weird sounds, or jumble up meaningless words. It may be a once-a-month feeling, in which the person would not be a “schizo”; but it may be an everyday thing, every moment, disabling the person to function properly, captivating them in their own worlds. Schizophrenia may account for such symptoms. After all, by probability, one in 100 people are said to develop schizophrenia (Myers). But there is hope for getting well and adjusting to society again – research is ongoing and people are more understanding. Media portrays the disorder as an aesthetic achievement. Although intense with many psychotic factors, the Black Swan illustrates the perfection a human being can accomplish through being psychotic.

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